Letter received from Chief Executive of a company of 70Million Rs Turnover. It is a case of frustration of a unit head and the height of toleration of another colleague.
Mr. X is trying to revive the sick unit, where Mr. F was the unit head of the concern for 52 years. His age is around 75 Years. The age of X is 65 years. Mr. F behaved earlier also with other senior executives in the same way. The eyewitness is Mr. E
Management by human values Case Study No.1
UNPLEASANT OCCURRENCE AT MY UNIT (MU)
Dear Sir,
1. I am writing to inform you
regarding an unpleasant episode that took place at MU on 10th
March 2012. The chronological details are as under:-
(a) At about 1500 hrs. as a matter of routine,
I went to F’s office to apprise him of factory days activities.
Mr. X also accompanied me. At that time, Mr. E was also present in Mr. F's office. I greeted Mr. F appropriately, and the moment Mr. X started to convey his greetings, Mr. F looked at him and angrily told him
to leave his office saying that he has nothing to do with him.
(b) Mr. X enquired from Mr. F why he is annoyed with him and that he has come to convey the Chairman’s
message to him. Mr. F using abusive language again, told him to leave his
office immediately, to which Mr. X replied that he will not leave his
office without conveying the message of the Chairman and you can do
whatever you wish to do.
(c) At this point, Mr. F got extremely
annoyed and started using abusive language not worth mentioning and got up from
his chair, giving an impression of leaving his office. At this point in time, I was sitting on a chair opposite Mr. F’s chair across the table. The moment Mr. F reached the office door, he picked up his walking stick and, using
abusive language, he started hitting Mr. X, who did not try to defend himself and instead kept on saying, “ hit
me, hit me, and relieve yourself of your frustration.”
(d) I shouted for Mr. F to
stop hitting and tried to intervene by saying that it does not behave of The company’s senior officers to fight like this, but to no avail, as Mr. X told me to let Mr. F hit him as much as he wants and Mr. F continued abusing and hitting him. Somehow I physically intervened and stopped the one-sided fight. When Mr. F stopped hitting, Mr. X told Mr. F that “you try to hit your son like this, then you would know what happens.”
2. During all this, Mr. E was present, whom I asked him to
leave the place and do his job. He left the place immediately.
3. We, Mr. F, Mr. X, and self came out of Mr. F’s office where Mr. F using abusive language, loudly mentioned the
following to Mr. X:-
(a) I
know that Chairman has sent you here to fight with me, and you can go
and tell him
I don’t care.
(b) My 52
years hard work and service to the Company have been reduced to ashes because of
your backbiting to Chairman.
(c) I had repeatedly been called to another office and made to sit there without any work to humiliate me.
(d) I shall ruin Chairman and will see
to it that the Chairman goes to Jail. Mr. Chairman can call Chief Minister, Governor, and Prime Minister; whomever he
wishes to, I care to hoots.
4. At this point in time, I
intervened, and peace prevailed. Later on, Mr. F got into his car and went
away. I and Mr. X reached my office and rung up Mr. E and urged him not to
divulge any details of this episode to anyone whatsoever, to which he promised
his silence.
5. I contacted the Chief Executive of the other associated companies and narrated
the incident to him in the presence of Mr. X. He said that he shall convey
the same to your good self.
6. At about 18:45 hrs, Mr. X telephoned
me and requested me to come to his room. There he showed me the
swollen back of my right hand, right arm, and shoulder.
7. Mr. X did not report to the police in the overall interest of the organization and gave in writing to the chairman.
I call it the height of frustration and the height of toleration.
Readers, please comment.
Mr. X is still working, and Mr. F is also working. No action is taken by Chairman as per the last reports received. Some senior executives are discussing taking an apology from Mr. F in writing and seeking Mr. F's removal. Sometimes management by human values creates nonsense, and the unit becomes sick. It becomes sick because of senior executives but not because of workers.
The author has written the book on Management by human values, and one of the readers from a leading Indian industry informed him about this case. Names are kept confidential.
It is informed later in 2017 that directors could not take any action against F and frustrated X and E left the company after 3-5 years.
